My Husband and I moved to South Korea to teach English as a Foreign Language. In America we loved trying out lots of new recipes. When we arived in Korea I discoved that we did not have a stove and I no longer had all my spices or fun cooking gadgets I enjoyed at home. This blog is about the American recipes that we cook in Korea.

Friday, December 25, 2009

We were given several boxes of brownie mix in one of our first care packages from America. We struggled with how we could cook them since we don't have an oven. At first we tried using our toaster oven. All I can say is that it was a disaster. So Chris came up with the idea of cooking the brownies in a skillet. Yes, at this point we were desperate to eat brownies.

1 box of brownie mix
Eggs (amount the box calls for)
Oil (Also the amount called for on the box)

Mix all of the ingredients as listed on the back of the brownie box, except omit the water.

Heat a large skillet on low heat

Place spoon fulls of brownie mix in the pan in the shape of cookie.

Treat them like pancakes. Cook them for a long time on low heat on the first side. Then when they look done flip them over and cook them for only a few minutes on the other side.

If you are not able to get brownie mixes from the states don't buy them in Korea. They are about 9,000 won which is equivilant to 8 or 9 American dollars. On the same isle as the brownie mixes you can find almost all the ingredients that you need to make your own mix.

One thing that we can find a lot of in South Korea are potatoes. I had to get used to vegetables that still had dirt on them though. Tonight when my husband went to wash the potatoes his hands turned black with dirt.

Mix the onions, green onions, mushrooms, garlic and meat together in a bowl. I was going to layer these items like a lasagna, but didn't have time and it turned out great like this.

Layer your mixtures in the following order potatoes first, then add a dash of salt or season salt

Next add the veggie/meat mixture.

Place a pat or two of butter on the next layer.

Sprinkle with cheese. You can mix all three cheeses together. I choose one cheese for each layer.

Continue placing the layers in the above order until the pot is full.

Pour the 1/2 cup of water and 1/2 cup of milk over the top.

Cooking on high for at least 3 hours or until the potatoes or soft. You can also cook it on low for eight hours.

When I made this recipe it was very delicious. I let it cook all day on low. You can use it as a classic potato side dish or add the meat and cheese to make it a one dish meal.

We think this meal might work well without the cheese, but have yet to try it that way. I have found that cheese is very expensive in Korea, so I am trying to reduce my use of it. The original recipe that I based my recipe on did not call for cheese.

Time Saving Tips:

Prepare your vegetable and meat mixture ahead of time and freeze it until you are ready for use. You can pull it out of the freezer the night before you make the dish.

I buy my cheese in 2 lb blocks from Costco. When we first open it my husband grates all of the cheese and then places it in gallon sized freezer bags and put them in the freezer. Whenever we want cheese we just reach in and grab what we want.

Here are some of the ingredients. Right after I took this picture I looked in the fridge and found several other items that I wanted to add.

This is what the pot looked like after I filled it up and before cooking it.